Hematology

The Cure of Acute Leukemia in Adults: Beginnings In the summer of 1927, a 49-year-old businessman from New York consulted Dr W. Gloor, in Naegeli's Clinic in Zürich, Switzerland. He had typical acute leukemia with a WBC count of 102,400/cu mm, with 93% myeloblasts. Bleeding, fever, and splenomegaly rounded out his clinical picture. Treated with the relatively crude, ineffective agents available at the time—radiation, arsenic, and mesothorium—his illness took a surprising turn. The leukemia disappeared and the businessman returned home. On a return visit to Switzerland a year later, he was free of disease.¹ One might imagine that this striking therapeutic success firmly established the young physician's reputation. But alas, this was not the case. The experts of the time could conclude only that he had made a mistake in diagnosis, and Dr Gloor left the university to practice at a hospital in a small canton.

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